Winston Churchill, King Camp Gillette (don't you think the invention of the razor should have been obvious to someone named Gillette?), Anwar Sadat, Reinhold Niebuhr and Robert Gould Shaw are just a handful of the personages the reader meets. Mr. McCain does a fabulous job of bringing his pages to life. You are drawn into the profiles, learn new things and relearn some you may have forgotten. The profiles are fleshed out and give enough background to allow the reader the sense that they have read something worth reading.
I do have two cons, however. The first is the introductory piece for each chapter; I found them to be a little "lecturey". The second is the surprising number of missing "the's", "is's", "and's" and other small grammatical absences. It is a bit perplexing to me that there are so many. It was also a bit distracting.
I almost forgot. There are connections to two other "Venture" books thus far, A Useful Woman and The Last Hero. One of the connections is thin, but it's there. The other is a little stronger. I'll leave you to determine which is which. :) Finding the connections was definitely a fun aspect of reading the book! I am (Warning: Excessive synonym usage follows!) liking, fancying and enjoying finding these connections and feeling the dots in my brain connect!!
Favorite Quotes:
Attributed to Winston Churchill: "One might as well breed slow race horses."
"In the end, self-confidence is only a virtue when it is premised on the author's certainty that he has prepared himself, in the past and in the present situation, to make the best decision he can. All else is vanity, perhaps the worst attribute that anyone who is responsible for making important decisions could possess...Once the decision is made, and its execution ordered, confidence should become fortitude."
Attributed to Karl Bonhoeffer: "Who stands firm?...Only the one for whom the final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these, when in faith and sole allegiance to God he is called to obedient and responsible action: the responsible person, whose life will be nothing but an answer to God's question and call."
"We must establish and defend strictures on our own conduct that will protect justice from the demands of our egos. And we must have the humility to accept the guilt we share in by the actions we might be required to take to do justice."
Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr: "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice make democracy necessary." & "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."
"We may not know the full answer in our time. To history, in its poor imitation of God's timeless judgement, one man's life lasts no longer than the spark of a struck flint. But the flame it kindles lasts a bit longer, and thus the full achievement awaits a later, posthumous judgement."
Overall Opinion:
An excellent book overall. Great synopses of men and women who contributed to their day and our time.
Rating:
9
Links to: A Useful Woman The Early Life of Jane Addams by Gioia Diliberto & The Last Hero A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
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